Monday, 27 April 2015

Dr Mohammed Imana, a general practitioner, graduated from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria in 1991. He was sanctioned by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland, and Labrador, Canada, after he was found guilty of misconduct before an adjudication panel.The tribunal concluded Imana did not properly review his patient's kidney profile before releasing her from hospital. She thereafter died from kidney failure.

Imana has been ordered to offer a written apology to the victim's family, complete four weeks each of supervised emergency room and internal medicine training, and pay up to $20,000 to the college for tribunal costs.

Imana first saw 86-year-old Emily Goodyear at the Brookfield Bonnews Health Centre east of Gander, N.L., on May 6, 2011, says an agreed statement of facts filed at the disciplinary hearing.

She had arrived weak and disoriented by ambulance and was diagnosed with gastroenteritis and mild dehydration. Imana ordered intravenous fluid but no blood work before Goodyear was released and returned to the Hillcrest Manor Nursing Home in Musgrave Harbour the next day, says the statement.

She returned by ambulance on May 10 as her condition worsened. Imana ordered blood work and had a nurse start intravenous hydration.

The agreed statement of facts says Imana told Goodyear's daughter, Marilyn Tulk, that the test results were normal "when in fact he hadn't reviewed the results of the blood work."

If he had, the statement says Imana would have seen that Goodyear's profile report "was consistent with kidney failure."

In a letter to the college dated Oct. 5, 2011, Imana wrote that a nurse had advised him of abnormal blood results on the day he assessed Goodyear for the second time. But he said he must have mistakenly thought they were for another critically ill patient who had also arrived as the emergency room was busy with a local gastroenteritis breakout.

Goodyear was sent back to the nursing home but was admitted the next day to the James Paton Memorial Hospital in Gander. She died two days later on May 13, 2011.

Tulk, who filed a complaint with the college the following month, said her mother was a vibrant woman whose life was cut short.

"I don't want it to happen to anybody else. I just hope he's learned his lesson," she said.